Members of Divest McGill, along with other McGill students, joined local climate action organizations such as Extinction Rebellion Quebec and Greenpeace Quebec on Oct. 29 in front of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) office at 1 Place Ville Marie, protesting the bank’s investments in fossil fuels. In front of[Read More…]
Tag: divest mcgill
The SSMU BoD’s ratification of the Divest for Human Rights Policy is long overdue
On July 22, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors ratified the “Divest for Human Rights Policy” with five votes in favour and two votes against. Back in February, SSMU’s democratic bodies—the General Assembly and the Legislative Council—overwhelmingly voted to approve the policy. However, the Board of[Read More…]
Divest McGill’s open letter calls on Metro to encourage McGill divestment
Five members of Divest McGill gathered on April 17 outside of the Metro grocery store located in the De Lorimier neighbourhood to encourage Montrealers to boycott Metro Inc. Despite the cold and windy conditions, the Divest members connected with passersby for almost an hour to try to convince Metro shoppers[Read More…]
Student activists host virtual rally calling for divestment from Line 3 pipeline
Content warning: Human trafficking Nearly 350 students across Canada and the United States attended a virtual student-led rally on March 5 to call for the defunding of Line 3, a tar sands pipeline project set to run from Alberta to Minnesota. The featured keynote speaker Tara Houska, a tribal attorney,[Read More…]
Divest McGill holds workshop on climate justice and divestment
Divest McGill held a virtual workshop titled “Divest 101” on Jan. 20 to educate students about divestment and encourage them to take action. Two representatives of Divest McGill, Zahur Ashrafuzzaman, U1 Arts & Science, and Millie Murray, U1 Arts, led the presentation by outlining the ethical, social, and financial incentives[Read More…]
Pandemic-era activism calls for sustained support
To most McGill students, the annual return to campus after the winter break usually conjures images of the university’s vibrant activist community. From flyers passed out during the Change The Name campaign to Divest McGill’s weekly demonstrations outside of the Arts building, it was hard to miss the advocacy taking[Read More…]
Divest McGill forms coalition, writes open letter with 18 divestment groups across Canada
The Divest Canada Coalition, a consortium of climate action groups at 19 Canadian universities, penned an open letter in September 2020 calling on universities across the country to divest from fossil fuels. The coalition’s demands centre on divestment, but also address related issues such as the violation of Indigenous sovereignty,[Read More…]
Divest McGill holds rally protesting invasion of Wet’suwet’en territory
A small crowd of demonstrators braved the cold on Feb. 13 and gathered outside the James Administration building for a Divest McGill rally. The group called on the university to withdraw their investments in Coastal Gaslink and Teck Mining. In the midst of the ongoing conflict between Wet’suwet’en land defenders[Read More…]
Divestment should not be decided by an ex-PetroCan executive
“International research results have undoubtedly established that climate change and its resulting socio-economic impacts pose a serious threat to life on earth.” This is the first sentence from the letter that Suzanne Fortier opens McGill’s Vision 2020 Climate and Sustainability Action Plan with. The letter goes on to say that[Read More…]
Students can’t stop climate change on their own
“Systemic change, not climate change” and “we need solutions, change the institutions,” were among the slogans chanted by McGill students at the Youth Climate Strike on Mar. 15. One-hundred-twenty-five cities around the world participated in the protest, calling for governments and institutions to adopt environmentally-sustainable policies to help diminish the[Read More…]